Andrea Cortellessa, The Invisible Rivals: Italo Calvino and Giulio Paolini within the Frameworks

In the extensive inventory of Italo Calvino's favourite artists (documented by the collections of texts Guardare, recently published), no artist of the time was more attuned to him than Giulio Paolini. La squadratura, the text Calvino dedicated to Polini in 1975, has long been recognized as the decisive "preparatory drawing" for his "hyper-novel" Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore, published four years later. Less known are Calvino's further critical pages, currently unpublished, which continue in the direction started with La squadratura and develop it in a narrative direction. This essay also explores the narrative function of the character Irnerio, an artist inspired by Paolini, who acts in the narrative frameworks and has a crucial role in the novel's plot.